HMRC must name advisers fined over £7,500 for sanctionable conduct

HMRC must publish the details of a tax adviser who is issued with a penalty for sanctionable conduct of more than £7,500GOV. Where the penalty is set at the £7,500 minimum, no details may be published — including where special reduction provisions bring a penalty down to that levelGOV. There is no right of appeal to the tribunal against the decision to publishGOV, though what is published may be challenged by judicial review.

Because publication is a duty, there is no requirement to give the adviser an opportunity to make representations about whether information should be published at all; as a matter of good practice HMRC always tells the adviser what will be published and when. Where the adviser works or worked for an organisation, HMRC has a discretionary power — not a duty — to publish information about that organisation, used only so far as necessary to identify the individual adviser and never as a means of naming and shaming the organisation. Before publishing anything about the organisation, HMRC must inform it and allow reasonable opportunity for representations on whether its name should appear. If the adviser has left, the published material makes that clear and states that the organisation itself has not been found to have engaged in sanctionable conduct; where the organisation itself was penalised, it is the tax adviser and publication is mandatory.

What may be published is set out in the companion guidance: the adviser's name including trading, previous or pseudonym names, postcode (as a matter of practice the outward part only, withheld entirely where there is a serious and verifiable safety risk), nature of any business, penalty amount, the periods or times the conduct relates to, anything else needed to make identity clear, and any link to deliberate-defaulter publication. Details go on the GOV.UK website in whatever manner HMRC considers appropriate.

The publishing duty dates to paragraph 28 of Schedule 38 to the Finance Act 2012, which gave HMRC powers against dishonest tax agents. Section 250 and Schedule 22 of the Finance Act 2026 strengthened the regime: ministers said the £50,000 maximum penalty was a poor deterrent against advisers facilitating millions in tax loss, so the new provisions widen information-gathering, raise effective penalties and add a power to publish details of advisers suspended or barred from acting where the public interest requires it. The powers apply only to advisers who intentionally seek to bring about a tax loss — knowingly claiming repayments a client is not entitled to, or advising deliberately incorrect figures — and not to advisers acting in good faith, taking a credible view of the law, or making honest mistakes.

The circumstances engaging the duty are stated in HMRC's Compliance Handbook at CH179620, grounded in paragraph 28 of Schedule 38 to the Finance Act 2012 as amended by the Finance Act 2026.